Ethyn frowned. “I dinnae know.”
His cousin finally released Madison when she pulled away. She tensed as she watched the large black and cedar colored wolf vanish into the woodland. A wolf he was surprised had come so close to not one dragon but two.
“She isnae herself,” Ethyn added, still frowning after Phelan.
“She doesn’t seem it,” Madison murmured. Her gaze narrowed after the beastie in understanding. “She wants us to follow her, doesn’t she?”
Why did it almost seem like she sensed the wolf? Because she most certainly should not.
“Aye, she wants us to follow.” Ethyn went to pull Madison after him, but Cray grabbed her hand instead as they set out.
“I can walk just fine on my own,” she muttered but didn’t pull away. Rather, she involuntarily squeezed his hand, her thoughts confused and conflicted. She’d been worried about his welfare during the fighting, while at the same time angry at him for almost being caught unaware by the enemy. For taking such liberties with her at such an inappropriate time.
Liberties she had challenged him to take.
Aside from that, for the most part, her thoughts about him were similar to his about her. Frustration that they desired each other. Because she had desired him much more than she’d anticipated when he’d had her back against that rock. He had felt the tug of war in her mind. A short-lived battle that told him he could have taken her then and there.
She had been ready and willing.
Yet oddly, when he went to spread her thighs further, ready to hike her dress around her waist, he found he wanted her proposed kiss first. Not only that, but alarmingly enough, he did want the time to get to know her better. A proposal she had thought would drive him away and might still eventually. Until then, he still wanted it.
Just so long, he reasoned, as it happened very quickly.
Because while she discovered one thing with her back against the wall, he discovered another. Taking her wasn’t going to be like taking other lasses. Some might say he should already know that based on his parents and grandparents, but it was impossible to truly understand until a male dragon came together with a female dragon for the first time. Until he felt her inner beast dancing a sensual dance with his.
Tempting him like no other had.
Alarmed by that thought, he scowled, not wanting to discredit what he had felt for Maeve. The passion he’d felt in her arms. Not necessarily fiery but unforgettable if for no other reason than he’d had her only once before she got sick. He had finally felt what should have been his from the beginning.
Finally heard what should have been his moments before she succumbed to death.
“Bloody hell,” he cursed, raking his hand through his hair, fully aware by the hitch in Madison’s breath that she’d caught his deeply repressed thought. More than that, her inner dragon had taken full notice and though unsettled by it, mourned for him.
He shot Madison a warning look that she best never mention what she’d just discovered. It was not hers to share. Especially not hers to mourn over.
“How many Sassenach are back there?” he asked Ethyn telepathically, knowing it was best to keep quiet until they’d put more distance between themselves and the enemy. “And where are we exactly?”
“Verra near the English border.” Ethyn shook his head. “There’s a bloody army of Sassenach holding Berwick under siege.”
“Och,” he muttered, not surprised considering it looked to be around April. That meant Sir Alexander Seton was already defending Berwick-Upon-Tweed and likely starting to run low on supplies.
“Aye,” Ethyn confirmed, catching his concern. “As history tells it, England’s King Edward has joined Balliol. Trenches are being dug to cut off the water supply to the city.”
That meant they were also cutting off any hope of getting supplies or any communications to Berwick. Which also meant, like history said, that Archibald Douglas hadn’t taken swift, decisive action when he still had time but had been busy gathering an army.
Therefore, Regent Andrew Murray was still north of their current position.
“Have you had any contact with our kin here, Cousin?” Cray finally said aloud, confident they were far enough away from trouble now. Luckily his mother and grandmother had seen Madison into good, sturdy boots, but they would need to find supplies and horses soon.
“Nay, all is quiet.” Ethyn shook his head, his eyes watchful as his wolf continued leading the way. “Why do you think we lost all that time when we traveled to the future? I was under the impression that wouldnae happen again.”
“As was I.”
When Madison looked at him in confusion, he explained that, for the most part, before this all started, time went by faster here than in the future. As if time were trying to catch up with itself.
“It all has to do with the extra one,” Madison murmured. She stopped short and frowned at them as though they might have the answer. “Granted, I obsess easily enough, but why am I so stuck on one extra of something...or someone.”
“I’d like to know the answer to that as well,” he muttered, having been plagued with her concern about this for some time. Yet now, standing here, he sensed her concern in a whole new way. As though it were his concern as well.
More so, that she was right.
“Someone,” he said softly, sure she was onto something with that.
“Who doesn’t belong,” she whispered, only to be interrupted by Phelan howling.
“We must keep on,” Ethyn urged. “Until ‘tis safer.”
“Aye.” Cray took Madison’s hand again when she pulled it away. Times were far too dangerous, and it was best he had her in hand if they had to move fast.
“In hand?” she muttered, catching his thoughts far too easily now. He had been under the impression more intimacy was necessary before such was possible.
But then that would only hold true if she were his destined Broun. Something Ethyn clearly wasn’t convinced of as he frowned at their adjoined hands then met Madison’s eyes, wondering if he should step in. Cray glared at his cousin, daring him.
She shook her head at Ethyn, evidently letting him know all was well before her eyes turned to the forest ahead. “Your wolf is impressive. She’s huge.”
“Aye.” There was no missing the fondness in his cousin’s voice. “She’s strong too.”
“I can only imagine.”
“What is she doing here?” Cray shook his head. “If I didnae know better, I’d say she traveled with us via the ley-line this time.”
“Aye.” Ethyn nodded. “She did, but I dinnae know why except mayhap to protect us.”
“You mean protect you,” Madison said softly, sounding quite sure. “Because she’s not here for us.” She narrowed her eyes, apparently sensing something as she glanced at Cray. “I felt her aversion to me. To us both.”
She was coming into her dragon senses quickly indeed.
“Aye, as I said before, wolves dinnae much like dragons,” Cray replied. “’Tis smart of them, really.”
She shook her head. “I would never hurt an animal like that.”
“You might not,” he agreed. “But your inner dragon is another matter.” When she looked doubtful, he shrugged. “You will see what I mean the first time you embrace your dragon. ‘Tis impossible to explain otherwise.”
It was also impossible to believe she had gone her whole life without shifting.
“Maybe.” She was clearly not convinced she had something inside her that would harm the beastie. “But wolves are fast, and did you see the size of Phelan? Surely she could outrun or even stand up to a dragon.”
Both Cray and Ethyn shook their heads.
“’Tis clear you know nothing about what you are, lass.” Cray chuckled. “A wolf cannae outrun a dragon never mind stand up to one.”
“Fight one, nay,” Ethyn countered, coming to Phelan’s defense. “But wolves are smart and get into areas dragons cannae.”
“Aye.” Cray
snorted. “Until we claw our way in or shred where they hide with our teeth.”
“That’s awful,” Madison muttered.
“But true,” he returned.
“We’d have to be pretty big.”
“We are.” He had never been so eager to see a dragon as he was hers. Not after finally seeing her smoky blue dragon eyes in all their glory. Would she be shiny black like her hair or bluish-gray like her eyes? Shorter and compact or long and slender like her human body? “Males are typically larger than females.”
He noticed that while she had not fiddled with her hair bindings since they left his castle, she often went to push up glasses that were no longer there. Just as she did now while casting him a curious look. One that, despite how much she tried to hide it, didn’t disguise her lingering desire. Her sweet scent had been strong back there and clung to her now, reminding him just how much she wanted what he could offer.
What he would offer.
“You just can’t do it, can you?” she murmured into his mind, not needing to look at him. They both knew she referred to his endless lustful thoughts. How he couldn't stop thinking them.
“And you know full well why,” he reminded. “’Twill get better once we see through our agreement.”
“Right.” She shook her head, still not glancing his way. “A kiss, then you get to know me better.” She frowned. “Normally, that would be the other way around, you know?”
“A kiss, then I get to know you better, then we lay together,” he corrected, amused that she had omitted that last part.
She stopped short, amazed, and spoke aloud. “Wow, did you just say you would get to know me better? Rather than arrogantly thinking it should be the other way around?”
He supposed he had, but what difference did it make?
“You know full well what difference it makes.” She had the nerve to smirk. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re starting to think more like a decent guy now rather than a pompous jerk.”
He was about to respond but hesitated when he sensed something ahead.
Bracing for another ley-line to whip them away, he didn’t give her a choice this time but pulled her against him only to realize they weren’t traveling after all.
Rather someone had traveled to them.
Or so it seemed at first.
Chapter Eleven
“CHLOE,” SHE EXCLAIMED when her friend appeared then vanished. “Or was that Chloe?”
Her skin had been aglow, and her eyes sparkled.
“Aye, ‘twas Chloe.” Weapon drawn, Cray kept her close, protecting her as they took in their surroundings. They stood in a Stonehenge she didn’t recognize before everything twisted in fire, and they were standing in the Irish Stonehenge from her dreams.
“What are we doing here?” she whispered, taking in the five standing stones. Again, she wondered why there wasn’t a sixth. Because the middle one was most definitely Julie and Tiernan’s. “And where were we before?”
“’Twas the Machrie Moor Stone Circles,” he rumbled, the unexpected emotion in his voice obvious but fleeting. “Have ye not been there before?”
“No,” she whispered, suddenly sensing she wasn’t being honest about that. Or was she? “I don’t think so.”
“So you dinnae know for certain?” He looked at her curiously, even cautiously, if she were not mistaken. “Even in a dream?”
She peered at him, caught for a second by something just out of reach in his eyes. As though she were about to remember something she had forgotten. But as soon as the sensation came, it fled. Instead, despite their odd situation, and having clearly traveled way back in time, she once again became singularly aware of being in his arms.
Of being so close yet so far apart.
“Because the unholy are at my back,” she whispered, suddenly seeing red, needing him away from her. Now. “You have to let me go.” When he instinctually pulled her tighter against him, she shook her head and pushed him away. “No, let me go, or else!”
Almost the second she said it, his dragon eyes flashed with pain, and just like that, he was gone.
She stumbled back as fire whipped around her only for the stones to vanish then reappear. Not five now but three sets of three. Her vision flared brighter red when she spun and locked eyes with a unicorn. The moment their eyes connected, it felt like a sledgehammer hit her chest, and she stumbled back.
It was warning her.
Threatening her.
Then so very, very sad for her.
She blinked once, twice, horrified by something just beyond her reach before the world shifted around her again, and she found herself back where she started. Only now, she stood alone across from an ethereal woman who stared at her as intently as the unicorn just had.
“Tell him to stay away from you,” the woman whispered, the sound distant but up close all at once. Like an echo reverberating around her. The stranger rested her hand on her womb. She got the impression she tried to convey more than she said as her eyes pleaded with Madison. “Tell him you are dangerous.” She shook her head. “That he will never find us again if he continues down this path.”
A blink later, she was gone, and everything returned to normal. Sort of. She wasn’t standing anymore. Nor was she alone. It took her a moment to realize she was sitting on Cray’s lap beside a fire, and her friends were here.
“Julie! Chloe!” she exclaimed, but nothing came out. She was too parched.
She went to sit up only for the world to tilt. Far gentler than she thought him capable, Cray pulled her back, urging her to stay put until she’d gathered her strength. Tiernan and Aidan were there as well as Ethyn, who didn’t seem all that pleased with her current location.
“What’s going on?” she managed hoarsely.
“Drink, lass.” Surprising her with how decent he was being, Cray urged her to drink from a skin of whisky.
Grateful but wary, she narrowed her eyes at him before she took a sip then looked at the others. “What happened?”
“Fae magic, I’d say,” Julie replied, smiling alongside Chloe as they greeted her. “Seeing Chloe when we arrived sparked something inside you two, and it whisked you out of here for a little while. Cray returned first, then you about an hour later.”
She shook her head, glancing at him, unsure what it was she had witnessed. All she knew for certain was what she saw at the end. The message she had received.
“Maeve,” she whispered, wishing she knew how to block him from sensing her thoughts. From seeing what she had seen.
For having him remember something that was so very painful.
“Och, dinnae trust that, Cousin,” Aidan said softly. His fingers wrapped with Chloe’s. He shook his head. “You know what the Disinherited are capable of.”
She knew by Cray’s guarded, cautious thoughts and unreadable expression that no one knew what she did.
Not a soul knew what he had heard moments before Maeve passed away.
She swallowed hard and blinked back tears, knowing they would anger him. He considered the pain he suffered his and his alone. Not a perfect stranger’s. Yet here she was remembering the grief he had felt. His torture when his newly conceived child’s heart beat for the first time moments before it beat for the last.
Though tempted to tell him how sorry she was, how oddly enough she felt his pain as if it were her own, she refrained. He would not take her consoling him well. Not when so much anger simmered near the surface, and so much rage struggled to break free.
“It’s great to finally have you guys here.” Chloe grinned, eyeing Madison with speculative curiosity she knew had more to do with her being a dragon than anything else. Not just that, but she sensed they all wondered about her and Cray. “We know what happened up until Cray lost you, Madison.” She cocked her head. “What happened after that? Where’d you go?”
She told them all but the part where Maeve touched her womb.
“Something truly horrible happened at the Irish Stonehenge,” she
said in conclusion, swallowing hard, overwhelmed by how it had made her feel. “And I’m not so sure I was on the right side of it.”
“Because of the unholy at your back,” came Grant’s voice moments before he appeared. He was older now, his eyes wise as they stayed with hers. “So you think you were in league with this dark brotherhood in another life, mayhap?”
Another life? But then, how else could it be?
“I don’t know.” She shook her head, remembering the angst she had felt when she pushed Cray away. How desperate she was that he not touch her. That he not be what? Hurt? Yes. But more too. “Discovered,” she said aloud. Her eyes met his. “I didn’t want someone to know about you, I don’t think.”
“And you saw the unicorn,” Julie murmured. “A creature that had been sacrificed at that very Stonehenge.”
“I did.” She hated the guilt she’d felt. As though she had done something awful and the unicorn knew it. “But I don’t think that’s the biggest thing we should be concerned about right now.”
“Nay,” Grant agreed. His ethereal form wavered in the wind before stabilizing. “For your biggest concern has always been the count, aye, lass?”
“’Tis important that,” came a disembodied voice before another ghostly man appeared and introduced himself as Tiernan’s father, Adlin. Strangely enough, he still lived, and she witnessed what they called an astral projection. “You think mayhap ‘twas someone rather than something, aye, Madison?”
“I do.” She nodded before she shook her head, absently tapping Cray’s chest as she counted everything off in her mind, continually coming back to the Irish Stonehenge. The one that existed prior to the one Adlin was conceived at in his prior life. “I keep thinking there should be a sixth stone, but no.” She shook her head again and narrowed her eyes. “Because that would require a sixth couple...a sixth person.”
If she didn’t have everyone’s attention before, she sure as heck did now.
“So you dinnae think there’s a sixth couple?” Cray’s hold on her instinctively tightened, as if he braced to defend her against some unknown thing. “How is that possible when there are six rings in total? Five provided by Adlin and Grant themselves?”
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